This report provides an overview of the research program of the Human Learning and Behavior Branch of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD) and highlights progress made from 1985 through 1987. The Branch, one of five that together comprise the Center for Research for Mothers and Children of NICHHD, was established in 1977 and has as its primary mission the support of research and research training to gain a fundamental understanding of behavioral development. This goal is accomplished by funding grants and contracts which are in the aggregate designed to determine how the interaction of biological, psychological, and socioenvironmental factors results in normative development. Processes and behaviors from the perinatal period to the beginning of adulthood are studied across a wide diversity of mechanisms that range from the molecular to the molar, the basic to the applied and the normal to the pathological. The program is divided into five major elements: (1) behavioral pediatrics; (2) developmental behavioral biology; (3) learning; (4) cognition and social and affective development; and (5) communication. The report also briefly summarizes the workshops and conferences sponsored by the Branch. Requests for proposals issued during fiscal years 1985 through 1987 are also enumerated. (Six tables and nine graphs are attached.) (RH)